Referral Adviser

January 2018

Job title: Referral Adviser / Team: Reset Outreach & Referral Service
Accountable to: Senior Referral Adviser / Line managing: Peers/Volunteers
Salary: £24,673pa inclusive of ILW pro rata
Pension: MiTHN / Hours: 26 hours a week
Disclosure: Enhanced / Contract: Permanent

Tackling the root causes of homelessness in East London

For homeless people, or those at risk of homelessness, finding employment and housing opportunities can feel like an uphill battle, even more so if they’re affected by physical, mental health or substance misuse issues.Providence Row works with more than a thousand homeless and vulnerably housed people a year in East London, offering an integrated service of crisis support, advice, recovery and learning and training programmes. Our aim is to ensure that people who are so often excluded from mainstream services gain the support and opportunities they need to create a safe, healthy and sustainable life away from the streets.Central to our work are our core values of Compassion, Respect, Inclusiveness, Empowerment and Justice. These inform the content, style and delivery of all our services.

Reset Outreach & Referral Service

The Reset Outreach & Referral Service is led by Providence Row, working with Mind THN. The service is commissioned by Tower Hamlets Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) to work seamlessly with Reset Treatment and Reset Recovery SupportServices providingresidents of Tower Hamlets with the drug and alcohol support they need. The Referral Service has the following objectives

  1. Providing targeted advice, information and outreach to encourage people into treatment services from hard to reach groups and hidden populations.
  2. Inform those individuals about the risks associated with drugs/alcohol, to reduce or eliminate risks and help them to improve their situation.
  3. Deliver street outreach to those individuals with chaotic drug and/or alcohol use who are not willing or able to access structured treatment interventions.
  4. Ensure there is appropriate signposting to other support services where an individual with problematic drug and/or alcohol use does not engage with the service or who’s support needs are not limited to drug and alcohol use.
  5. Provide outreach and training to local communities and agencies to better support treatment naïve service users to prepare for treatment

The service hub is based at Providence Row (TheDellow Centre) and support available includes a needle exchange service. The service will provide atleast 30 hours of outreach a week; contact with 1200 people a year (100 a month), 15 people each month referred to treatment with 10 taking it up.

This service is delivered through a “strengths based” approach. This means that all staff involved in the delivery of the service must work with, rather than for clients to address their needs. This is an approach taken by Mind and Providence Row, withboth organisationsrecognising that clients are people with problems, not problem people. Therefore, the service will engage clients in the development, delivery and evaluation of the work, workingwith a team of peer mentors with lived experience of substance misuse.

The ideal candidate

Passionate about providing quality support to some of the most vulnerable and excluded people in East London, you have the drive and track record to make positive lasting changes in people’s lives. You have considerable experience of substance misuse and the resulting client needs. You are an excellent communicator and can create positive working relationships with a wide range of people.

You have an interest in using professional marketing principles in a health and social care setting. You are creative, innovative and well organised.

The role

  • Develop and deliver community, agency and street outreach to encourage people to access treatment
  • Provide 1:1 support and group work to encourage people to access treatment services
  • Support the duty system and needle exchange rotaat the central hubbased at the Dellow Centre
  • Promote drug and alcohol treatment services through training and presentations
  • Participate in planning, monitoring and evaluation to ensure excellent service delivery

Key Responsibilities:

Client support

  • Provide harm-minimisation advice and information to clients who are not yet willing to address their substance use and work with this resistance through motivational interviewing techniques
  • Provide information and advice on treatment and support services within the borough, including signposting clients to a wider network of support services
  • Provide support to clients willing to address their alcohol and substance usethrough 1:1 support, group facilitation and presentations
  • Provide varied support to clients to facilitate engagement through a strengths based and personalised approach
  • Engage with families of users to build relationship and support networks within the community, where appropriate

Promotion of Reset services

  • Participate in the Needle Exchange rota, using the service as an engagement tool and to build rapport
  • Encourage treatment resistant clients to use the low threshold services provided at the central hub to maintain engagement
  • Actively promote the services offered at the central hub to a wide range of organisations to encourage referrals into the service
  • Participate in the production of the Referral Service promotional materials
  • Use promotional materials to encourage community organisations to highlight people of concern to the service
  • Take on networking responsibilities to ensure the service is well informed, up to date and promoted.
  • Record all client contact, service delivery and outcomes based on the contracts Key Performance Indicators to a high standard, using Inform database
  • Complete paperwork such as shift reports, assessments, referrals and short treatment episodes
  • Provide summary reports to the Senior Referral Advisor on performance and outcomes to be provided to the commissioners
  • Ensure all work carried out is in line with all policies and procedures relevant to the role
  • Support and promote service user involvement to enhance service delivery, and provide support to the Peer Mentor Co-ordinator to deliver the peer mentor programme

Partnership

  • Foster supporting partnerships with Reset colleagues at Providence Row, treatment and recovery support
  • Participate in the team rota to deliver the service to a high standard
  • Develop partnership work with other agencies and communities in the borough to better identify signs of substance use
  • Deliver1:1 support, group work and training to other professionals
  • Act as a first point of contact for relevant agencies and organisations by carrying a specialism in one of the following communities; Women, LGBTQ, Faith, BME groups, particularly those most represented in LBTH – Bangladeshi and Somali, Families, Young Adults
  • Actively seek out and forge links with agencies and communities with a view to expanding networks and exploring partnership working

Other Duties

  • Participate in the production and implementation of the Referral Service Team Plan and resulting personal objectives.
  • Take on occasional tasks as agreed with the Senior Referral Adviser
  • Work in accordance with the Charity's values, policies & procedures.

5Person specification

Knowledge and Experience
Experience of working with vulnerable people with complex needs / Essential
Experience of working with individuals who are actively engaged in substance use / Essential
Experience of working with individuals with enduring mental health diagnosis / Essential
Experience of solution focused 1:1 work and use of psycho-social approaches / Essential
Knowledge of substance misuse issues and relevant services in the area / Essential
Good IT skills, including databases to log and manage information and use of mobile and remote technology to communicate / Essential
Strong commitment to the importance of monitoring and evaluation all work achieved / Essential
Experience of engaging clients in designing, delivering and evaluating services / Desirable
Experience of running group work and training for clients and professionals / Desirable
A good understanding of the local community, cultural diversity and the need to adapt services in order to enable equality of access to services / Desirable
Experience of working with individuals from the Somali community and fluent in Somali / Desirable
Experience of managing peers or volunteers including those with low or no support needs and volunteers with lived experience of substance misuse / Desirable
Attributes
Strong organisational and recording skills / Essential
The ability to work with a wide range of people from a diverse community / Essential
The ability to work in partnership, including compromise and collaboration / Essential
Able to work unsociable hours such as early mornings and late evenings / Essential
Flexible and with a “can do” attitude / Essential
Able to work to the Providence Row core values / Essential